Saturday, May 14, 2011

The Metropolitan Opera Live in HD

Veering briefly off the jazz path, this is a great series: live broadcasts of performances by the Metropolitan Opera to a movie theater near you, in HD.

Opera in comfy seats, with popcorn. Opera in a place where, when things get snoozy (and they will), you can head out into the lobby for a break. Opera that's a lot cheaper than seeing it live and brings you closer to the stage. (Not that you shouldn't go to see live opera. Of course you should.)

6 comments:

In a similar vein, ICE - The International Contemporary Ensemble recently lost a concert opportunity in Minneapolis because the venue closed. So, they brought the concert to their audience via the internet, at WQXR's Q2, the 24/7 New Music stream. You can enjoy (or, just check out) the concert athttp://www.wqxr.org/blogs/wqxr-blog/2011/apr/29/economy-ice/.

Also at Q2, a videocast of a concert performance by the same group at Le Poisson Rouge, celebrating the music of Mario Diaz de Leon,

While these are not Jazz performances, they show that music can be brought to the public via the internet, the same way that Peter Gelb is bringing Opera to the public. Only the venue is different.

How it relates to Jazz: WBGO, Jazz 88, Newark, NJ has for years videocast concerts by great Jazz players of the day from the Village Vanguard (and some from J&R Music). They have two huge archives of these concerts which can be seen at any time.

http://www.livestream.com/wbgo

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/live-at-the-village-vanguard

Now, look at the ICE videos, and you will see great quality. The WBGO videocasts, as of yet not so much.

Also, NPR/music has been adding video to their suddenly burgeoning music arsenal.

So, Jazz listeners should be able to become Jazz watchers as this all proceeds.

I financially supported the ICE offerings. How? I bought a $10 "ticket" for each concert by making a contribution at their web site. Music is not free. If these guys and people like them can bring the music to us, we need to show our appreciation.

An exceptional comment, Richard. Thanks so much. To clarify, the Southern Theater in Minneapolis (where ICE was scheduled to play) did not close. Some concerts were cancelled (including ICE) in response to their budget crisis. But they're still hanging in there.

One can also watch live video broadcasts from Smalls Jazz Club in NYC.

I would apologize for the stubbornness of the “comment as” tool, except it’s not my tool, it’s Blogger’s/Google’s, and therefore I am helpless to influence it.

I did sign out and try it for myself. I was able to post a comment as “testing” from “onetwothree.com.” In the “Comment as” menu below the “Post a Comment” box, I scrolled down to “Name/URL” and filled in the blanks with my made-up self. It seemed to work.

You should also be able to scroll down to “WordPress,” fill in “musicsprings,” and go from there. I can’t try that to see if it works since I’m not you.

I would be happy to post a comment identifying you by name as the author of your music blog. Would you like me to do that?